Featured Artist

The Gallery at Northern Vineyards

What fantastic plants! They provide shade, foods, beauty, shelter and more. They put on different looks for each season of the year and are mourned when they die.
	I grew up in North Dakota. The last glacier to move over the midwest pushed rocky rubble before it as it advanced—and that was what laid under the soil my family grew crops on each year-after someone moved away the newest rocks and boulders that had freeze/thaw pushed to the surface every spring. I remember big skies, huge messy cottonwoods, force-grown “orchard” wind shelters and evergreen trees. There is a raw and harsh beauty to that landscape and the trees that survive are hearty souls.
I remember my parents planting trees in the yard and being disappointed if they didn’t make it through the winter. I think of this many times when in my travels I see trees growing out of rocky river banks or mountain sides and think “what the heck-why can you grow there and not in my family’s yard?!?” I am the daughter of a farmer and feel a connection to the look of the lands I see around me. I have no desire to plant a crop—but I can’t stop noticing the trees. My paintings here are done with a variety of materials including watercolor, pastels, acrylics, gouache, water-soluble ink pencils and earth pigments. Whatever works! I hope you enjoy the forest I’ve created. I live in Stillwater with my husband, Don, and work out of my home studio. I can be contacted at: csart51@gmail.com